Dominican Restoration War

The Dominican Restoration War was a war of independence fought by the Dominican Republic against Spain from 1863 to 1865. The war resulted in the restoration of Dominican sovereignty, the withdrawal of Spanish forces, the separation of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo from Spain, and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic.

History
The Dominican Republic won its independence from Haiti in 1856, but it was a fragile new republic with an untenable political and economic system. In 1858, the army officer Pedro Santana overthrew the President Buenaventura Baez, who had bankrupted the country for his own benefit, and Santana - a staunch conservative - decided to appeal to Spain to re-annex the Dominican Republic. With the United States concerned with its own internal conflict, the American Civil War, Spain was emboldened to interfere in Latin American affairs. On 18 March 1861, the Spanish annexation of the Dominican Republic was announced, and Santana was named the first Governor of the restored Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. This act was not well received by everyone, and there were several failed uprisings against Spanish rule. On 4 July 1861, former President Francisco del Rosario Sanchez was captured and executed after leading a failed invasion of Santo Domingo from Haiti. Santana, upset with his inability to hold the same amount of power as he did while he was President, resigned as Governor in January 1862, and he was replaced by Felipe Ribero y Lemoyne.

The Spanish government proceeded to alienate the locals by passing a law which allowed for the Spanish Army to requisition draft animals without any degrees of compensation. The government also raised tariffs on non-Spanish goods and ships and attempted to establish a monopoly on tobacco, alienating the merchant classes as well. By late 1862, there were fears that a rebellion would break out in the Cibao valley, and that the Spanish would re-institute slavery and ship black Dominicans to slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

War
On 16 August 1863, Santiago Rodriguez Masago made a daring raid on the Capotillo Hill, where they raised the Dominican flag. Except for Santo Domingo and some of the neighboring towns, the whole country rose in arms, and several towns in Cibao joined the rebellion. Soon, 6,000 Dominican insurgents rallied to Gaspar Polanco's army, which besieged Fort San Luis and its 800-man Spanish garrison and captured it on 13 September 1863. Self-appointed president Jose Antonio Salcedo unsuccessfully lobbied for United States aid in the war, but Polanco and Gregorio Luperon's guerrillas killed a total of 1,000 Spaniards by March 1864, while another 9,000 had perished from fever. The 21,000-strong Spanish garrison received 6,000 reinforcements,  and Jose de la Gandara y Navarro was appointed the new Spanish commander. La Gandara attempted to broker a ceasefire with the rebels, but Gaspar Polanco overthrew and assassinated Salcedo, who had made costly military mistakes and intended to recall the unpopular Buenaventura Baez to serve as President once more. After a failed attack on the Spanish at Monte Cristi, Polanco was overthrown by his own brother Juan Antonio Polanco, Pedro Antonio Pimentel, and Benito Moncion, who appointed Benigno Filomeno de Rojas as the new President in January 1865. By then, the American Civil War was almost at an end, frightening Spain. Queen Isabella II of Spain annulled the annexation on 3 March 1865, and, by 15 July, there were no Spanish troops left on the island. The Dominican Republic returned to being unstable, with Baez occasionaly returning to the presidency, but the war left the country with a new sense of national pride.